Production has begun at deepwater Knarr oil field in the Norwegian North Sea.
Operator BG Group didn’t report initial flow rates but said the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage, and offloading vessel has capacity of 63,000 boe/d. The vessel, moored in 400 m of water about 45 km northeast of Snorre field, can store 800,000 bbl of oil.
BG is operating the FPSO, built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, under a 6-year contract with extension options from Teekay, which also is providing shuttle tankers.
Development included six wells drilled through two drilling templates and connected to the FPSO via a 4.5 km pipework bundle.
Associated natural gas moves through a new, 106-km, 12-in. pipeline linked to existing systems and operated by Gassco (OGJ Online, Mar. 2, 2015).
BG estimates gross reserves at 80 million bbl of oil in the Lower Jurassic Cook formation. It expects the field to produce for at least 10 years. The field’s former name was Jordbaer.
Interests in the license, PL373 S, are BG 45%, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge 25%, Wintershall 20%, and DEA Norge 10%.